Could happen to you too someday. Hopefully reading this post will make you wiser and take precautions…
Note: This is a Honda C35 engine, the precursor to the J35 engines on our Odysseys, so this engine is on my Acura RL not my Odyssey. However the same issue could happen (or has probably happened) on an Odyssey J30 engine, hence its relevance to Odyssey owners.
Is there a way to get the broken wrench fragment out of the engine?
Cronicle of the tragedy:
Started out replacing valve cover rubber seal that was very slowly leaking oil onto exhaust...
...In the process I noticed I had to replace the post shown by the yellow arrow because the nut threads had stripped and the cover bolt would not torque properly…
Used a crow foot wrench (see photo insert) to remove the post. Crow foot wrench broke and piece fell in the hole shown by the orange arrow. …. Yes, I know…
That hole is pretty deep, about 10".
Should I start looking for a replacement car? Or is there a way to remedy this?
The vehicle has 250k miles but still runs well.
So some of my questions are:
Q1. Where does that hole lead to? The crankshaft? And what does that hole do?
Note: This is a Honda C35 engine, the precursor to the J35 engines on our Odysseys, so this engine is on my Acura RL not my Odyssey. However the same issue could happen (or has probably happened) on an Odyssey J30 engine, hence its relevance to Odyssey owners.
Is there a way to get the broken wrench fragment out of the engine?
Cronicle of the tragedy:
Started out replacing valve cover rubber seal that was very slowly leaking oil onto exhaust...
...In the process I noticed I had to replace the post shown by the yellow arrow because the nut threads had stripped and the cover bolt would not torque properly…
Used a crow foot wrench (see photo insert) to remove the post. Crow foot wrench broke and piece fell in the hole shown by the orange arrow. …. Yes, I know…
That hole is pretty deep, about 10".
Should I start looking for a replacement car? Or is there a way to remedy this?
The vehicle has 250k miles but still runs well.
So some of my questions are:
Q1. Where does that hole lead to? The crankshaft? And what does that hole do?
- I put a small dowel in the hole to measure its depth and it went down 10" before it hit something. Is it the crankshaft it's hitting?
- I could get a borescope camera to help out.
- The wrench fragment is magnetic while most of the engine is not. That is an advantage as I could perhaps use a magnet attached to the camera.
- If the wrench fragment ended up in the crankshaft I could conceivably retrieve it by removing the oil pan (somewhat complicated because I have to remove wheel axle but will do it if it's the only option)